Getting Organized

Tips for Getting Organized

Your neighborhood officer will provide flyers to help contact as many of your neighbors as possible

Once your program is beginning to get underway, there are several steps you should take to make the organization solid and successful:

Contact your neighborhood officer for information on local crime patterns, and help with training members in home security and reporting skills
Select a Neighborhood Watch coordinator and block captains who will organize meetings and relay information to members
Recruit new members by keeping up-to-date on new residents, and make special efforts to involve the elderly, working parents, and young people
Work with your neighborhood officer to put up highly visible Neighborhood Watch signs and decals (these will often deter criminals knowing their activities are watched and reported)
Work with your neighborhood officer to organize citizen patrols either on foot or in vehicles (lost children, stranded motorists, stray dogs, damaged street signs or traffic signals, wandering cattle, and auto accidents are often discovered by citizen patrols)

Neighbors should look for:

Screaming or shouting for help
Someone looking into the windows of houses or parked cars
Unusual noises
Property being taken out of houses or buildings where no one is at home, or the business is closed
Cars, vans, or trucks moving slowly with no lights or apparent destination
Anyone being forced into a vehicle
A stranger running through private yards or alleyways
A stranger sitting in a car or stopped to talk to a child
Abandoned cars

Don’t investigate these problems on your own! Report these incidents to the police and alert neighbors of such situations.